By Mark Scott
Buffalo, NY – The budget crisis that has enveloped Buffalo schools has teachers feeling as if they're "under siege."
If the imminent threat of hundreds of teacher layoffs weren't bad enough, Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore says teachers were stunned last week to hear State Education Commissioner Richard Mills single out Buffalo in his remarks on poor test scores. Buffalo continues to lag behind the state averages in both fourth and eighth grade English tests.
Rumore says Mills owes Buffalo teachers an apology. He says Mills should realize that Buffalo spends less per pupil than any other big city school district in New York.
"Rather than castigating us and insulting us, he should be saying, 'Congratulations, I don't know how you're doing it with the little resources you have,'" Rumore said.
Rumore said teachers believe they're being made scapegoats for a fiscal crisis that is out of their control.
"Here they are working their hearts out, doing the best that they can possibly do in oversized classes, without the supplies and computers other school districts have, and then you hear the commissioner come in and bad-mouth the district, it's demoralizing," Rumore said.
Rumore says all that matters to the district's teachers are the kids. He pledges that teachers will continue to do all they can to help their students achieve more.